Video footage of work on faulty door overwritten — Boeing
WASHINGTON: Investigations into an incident involving a tornout fuselage section on a Boeing aircraft have revealed that the US aircraft manufacturer has no records of any work on the fragment, reported German news agency (dpa).
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) emphasised on Wednesday that it did not know who had removed and reattached the fuselage section at the Boeing plant in Renton, Washington. Boeing boss Dave Calhoun said the aircraft manufacturer had no documentation on the matter, wrote NTSB boss Jennifer Homendy in a letter to the US Senate Transport Committee.
In the incident involving a virtually new Boeing 737-9 Max of the US airline Alaska Airlines, a fuselage fragment broke off at row 26 shortly after take-off as the aircraft climbed. None of the more than 170 people on board were injured.
However, experts also pointed out that, by a stroke of luck, the two seats near the hole in the fuselage had remained empty and the aircraft was still at a relatively low altitude.
According to initial investigations, the NTSB believes that four fastening bolts on the fuselage section were missing. There are indications that the fragment moved further and further out of position until it broke out on the aircraft’s 154th flight, the NTSB’s Homendy said a few days ago at a hearing in the US Senate.
The committee had also ordered her to report in writing on whether Boeing provided documentation on the work on the fuselage section. In aircraft construction, it is customary to document work steps in detail. Boeing emphasised on Wednesday that it was cooperating with the investigation.
The NTSB had also hoped to find out more about work on the fragment via recordings from security cameras. However, Boeing said that the recordings were no longer available. The company pointed out on Wednesday that the recordings were automatically overwritten by new recordings after 30 days –and that the aircraft had been in the factory in September and delivered in October.